Legend of Zelda: An RPG to the Past

Age of Understanding

No one knows how much time passed between the creation of the world and the beginning of recorded history, yet it is apparent that eons upon eons had already come and gone when the first scholars took note of their world. Because of this, very little is known about the start of this age, and it is considered the longest age in pre-Hyrule’s history. As new information comes to light, old facts are discarded and modified. Thus, much of what is known of the early age can only be generalization at best.

Though the Goddesses left the world, other divine beings did not. Left in charge of various elements of the world were multitudes of deities and spirits, tasked with upholding the will of the Goddesses. During this age, the people seemed to live very closely with these beings, who walked the earth in physical form. Deities like Zephos and Cyclos, the twin wind gods, are first mentioned in this age, bickering even as they brought favorable winds to the noble and hazardous storms to the vile.

However, chief among these divine spirits was the Goddess Hylia, the guardian of humanity and entrusted keeper of the Triforce. Supposedly, she had been tasked by the Goddesses to hide the Triforce away until a worthy mortal appeared, and was thus an arbiter of peace and justice.

This era marks the first known reference to the Sheikah, the shadow-folk that possessed uncanny powers. They were the mortal agents of Hylia, her eyes and ears throughout the land. Also mentioned during this age are the mysterious Oocca, a race of beings said to be gifted with advanced knowledge. Their understanding of sophisticated technology allowed for the creation of wondrous gadgets and mechanical marvels to aid the people of the world, though little is known as to the motives of these beings.

It is toward the end of this age that the most is known. The land that would later become Hyrule was blessed with devices of wonder unheard of today. Metal beings known as “robots” labored dutifully for the sake of mankind, mining precious ore from the earth or navigating and charting the world’s vast oceans. Timeshift Stones, gemstones with unusual temporal properties were soon discovered. When struck, these stones resonated with a peculiar energy, and within a certain radius of the stone a field would appear that offered a glimpse into the distant past. Thrilled with this, the people of this age built the Temples of Time to honor the Goddess Hylia, and with the stones constructed complex Time Gates that allowed them to travel briefly into the past. These gates only manifested in places of great power; the ancient texts talk of the latent magical auras these areas have, and are now recognized to be sites where gates to the Sacred Realm have since been discovered.

Some attribute the end of this age, and the beginning of the coming hardships, as a form of punishment for tampering with the flow of time, that somehow meddling the natural cycle brought about the coming disaster.